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Venture To Type the Writing of a Self-Proclaimed IXFX?

jackandthebeast

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So I'm positive that I'm an IXFX, but due to the general skepticism on the board I've decided to post a sample of my writing to let other people tell me what they think I am. This is a paper I wrote for my Multicultural Film class last year on the positive portrayal of gender roles in the film "Secretary". The assignment was a compare and contrast using one of the themes from the class with the film used to discuss it(though we didn't need to discuss both films in detail), along with a film of our choosing; and we also had to discuss a genre in connection with the film we chose:

(essay deleted in response to general consensus on lack of usefulness and eye strain)
 
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simulatedworld

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If you want people to type you, write about your personal values, interests, goals in life, what you think is important, what annoys you about others/which parts of their values you disagree with and why, etc.

This essay isn't really related to you personally so the best we can do is try to infer personal information about you from writing style and subject choice, which is difficult at best.

For instance, if you want to relate it to these topics, do you relate more to feminism or postfeminism, and why? What is it about these topics that interests you and why do they resonate with your values?
 

jackandthebeast

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I don't really want anyone to type me. I want to demonstrate to others that I am, in fact, an IXFX, because if I can get people to validate the existence of borderline types then that fosters the possibility of me meeting an EXFX that I'm attracted to (the idea of an EXFX embodying the persona that I've idealized for years without identifying it as such). And also because people should be aware of the nature of things.

My processing and conception of self and everything else has been f*cked up for many months now (in response to the moralizing of an XXXP friend i had idealized i unintentionally repressed my J processing and now I can't slip back into my perspective. I switch perspectives frequently trying to get back into the right place in my mind (I do that normally but now it makes me experience frequent mood swings between an idealistic hope for restoration and fatalism. I feel emotionally void, often. I get overwhelmed far beyond the extent to which I usually get overwhelmed, and I've been having trouble motivating myself to stay on top of my classes. I don't know what to do. I'm going to try to transfer to a college near home next semester, but I don't know that that'll help. I feel like I'm slowly dissipating.. and I feel that if I were to meet an EXFX that I could relate to, the level of stimulation and greater psychological understanding would help me find my way back into myself.

Normally I'm interested in identifying and creating paradigm. I'm skilled at constructing meanings out of things, but am not enough aware of the external world to generate the content to construct into meanings, so I've given up my aspiration to write with the understanding that I need a creative partner to supply the content. Writing also overwhelms me, but I think that having the right partner would also dissipate that. Right now I'm taking one of the classes to switch into the studio art major, as I'm also interested in aesthetic(specifically assemblage); although if i transfer and there's a way to get into the theater program I'd prefer to do that.

It's late- Im not really sure what I'm writing.

I also recently posted a blog containing some of my Facebook posts, as someone was going to attempt to type me from that": http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...1-linked-duality-all-s-cracked-up-thread.html
 

heart

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I never understand why people want to try and say there are borderline types and yet still want to stay within the framework of MBTI. Why not just throw it all out then and go for the pure Jung types such as Introverted Thinking or something like that?

Because to me, the only use MBTI has is as a tool to discover what congnitive functions one uses and how one uses them but to try and claim to be a borderline type just wipes out all the validity of congitive functions underlying the types.

I'll leave my misspellings in here to give you something to be happy about tonight. ;)
 

entropie

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WALLS OF TEXT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PM me what you need, I got it all, dope, shrooms, gummi bears..
 

simulatedworld

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I don't really want anyone to type me. I want to demonstrate to others that I am, in fact, an IXFX, because if I can get people to validate the existence of borderline types then that fosters the possibility of me meeting an EXFX that I'm attracted to (the idea of an EXFX embodying the persona that I've idealized for years without identifying it as such). And also because people should be aware of the nature of things.

The only thing you're demonstrating is poor understanding of type theory...and the fact that you're incredibly INFP.

If you don't want anyone to type you, why are you making posts inviting people to type you based on your writing? I suspect that your attraction to personality type theory has to do with your desire for greater self-understanding. Fi wants to be in touch with what's most important to you on the inside, and you suspect that typology can help you define that more clearly. Additionally, Ne wants to understand how you fit into a broader context in a pattern larger than yourself, but you're conflicted about it because Fi feels that fitting squarely into a certain type mold would threaten your individuality. You compensate by continuing to study and discuss the theory, but placing yourself in a special "outside the box" category to satisfy your desire for uniqueness. Standard INFP.

My processing and conception of self and everything else has been f*cked up for many months now

So you freely admit that you have a warped and fucked up conception of self? How do you think you can type yourself accurately, then?

...it makes me experience frequent mood swings between an idealistic hope for restoration and fatalism. I feel emotionally void, often. I get overwhelmed far beyond the extent to which I usually get overwhelmed, and I've been having trouble motivating myself to stay on top of my classes.

Fi to the max. Your idealistic feelings are so overpowering that sometimes you feel the only way to deal with them is to shut them out entirely--which, of course, feels meaningless and fatalistic. You might potentially be bipolar. Have you seen a counselor or something of the like? It might help.

I don't know what to do. I'm going to try to transfer to a college near home next semester, but I don't know that that'll help. I feel like I'm slowly dissipating.. and I feel that if I were to meet an EXFX that I could relate to, the level of stimulation and greater psychological understanding would help me find my way back into myself.

Testing borderline on MBTI tests doesn't mean you're some special hybrid type--it just means you have difficulty understanding yourself and making sense of your own personality. The tests are only useful on a very basic and introductory level. Your writing here is littered with Fi's incessant self-critique and powerful desire for deeper meaning and self-understanding.

Normally I'm interested in identifying and creating paradigm. I'm skilled at constructing meanings out of things, but am not enough aware of the external world to generate the content to construct into meanings, so I've given up my aspiration to write with the understanding that I need a creative partner to supply the content. Writing also overwhelms me, but I think that having the right partner would also dissipate that. Right now I'm taking one of the classes to switch into the studio art major, as I'm also interested in aesthetic(specifically assemblage); although if i transfer and there's a way to get into the theater program I'd prefer to do that.

Ne needs external input in order to synthesize different ideas into a broader context that changes the meaning. It's also notorious for ignoring the actual content of what's going on around it in favor of imagining ways the context could be changed in order to turn the meaning into something else.

Many Ne people find that having a creative partner to bounce ideas around with helps out a lot. You have a lot of overpowering feelings that you don't know what to do with and you have a hard time expressing them in terms that others will understand = Fi.

It's late- Im not really sure what I'm writing.

I also recently posted a blog containing some of my Facebook posts, as someone was going to attempt to type me from that": http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...1-linked-duality-all-s-cracked-up-thread.html

Most of your facebook statuses here are incredibly Ne. The random associations between unrelated contexts..."this reminds me of that which reminds me of this which could mean something else if we consider the connection to this context instead", etc. etc.

We get a lot of INFPs here showing up and claiming to be borderline/special hybrid types. It's rooted in Fi's desire to express personal individuality and resentment of any attempt to box in or categorize anyone's unique expression of self. "I'm too unique to be stuck in one of these boxes!" is a very common Fi response to typology systems in general.

But don't worry--being INFP doesn't mean you can't be a unique individual with lots of worthwhile and special attributes. It's not a proscriptive insistence that you behave a certain way and it doesn't limit your ability to express yourself. It's just a description of the things you tend to consider important and the ways you prefer to conceptualize yourself and your relationship to the outer world...many people within the same type are extremely different and individualized in a million different ways.

You radiate tons of Fi and Ne. I see very little reason to read much Ni or Fe (or Se) at all. You have some self-image issues and a (perfectly normal) desire to appear special, unique and out of the box to others...this last part is really most evident in your facebook statuses. You want people to understand how you can bring a special understanding to everyday events (Ne), and you like to jump around between different contexts a lot to interrelate them into one bigger all-encompassing meaning (Ne.) You have tremendous depth of feeling but have trouble explaining exactly how you feel in terms others will understand and you're uncomfortable with the idea of an externally imposed system trying to summarize your personality because you feel it cheapens and trivializes your unique sense of self (Fi.)

Clear-cut INFP.
 

jackandthebeast

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The only thing you're demonstrating is poor understanding of type theory.

It's not that I don't understand type theory, it's that I don't consider it valid. The categories it imposes are arbitrary, something which is not the case when you allow the possibility of being able to combine them.


If you don't want anyone to type you, why are you making posts inviting people to type you based on your writing?

Because I hoped I could give people reason to doubt that I was a single type.

The only thing you're demonstrating is poor understanding of type theory.
It's not that I don't understand type theory, it's that I don't consider it valid. The categories it imposes are arbitrary, something which is not the case when you allow the possibility of being able to combine them.

I suspect that your attraction to personality type theory has to do with your desire for greater self-understanding. Fi wants to be in touch with what's most important to you on the inside, and you suspect that typology can help you define that more clearly. Additionally, Ne wants to understand how you fit into a broader context in a pattern larger than yourself, but you're conflicted about it because Fi feels that fitting squarely into a certain type mold would threaten your individuality. You compensate by continuing to study and discuss the theory, but placing yourself in a special "outside the box" category to satisfy your desire for uniqueness. Standard INFP.
I am not looking for the Myers-Brigg to help define myself more clearly. I did at one point but it's arbitrary and it only makes things more confusing. If I think, well, I'm behaving in a _________ manner, then I am unable to respond to the situation normally and authentically. If I respond according to what is suggested than I am validating an imposition of an external force on my behavior, and if I don't then I am not invalidating it because I don't know if I'm responding that way because it isn't the case or because I am intentionally behaving against my nature. When I think like that I slip into Fe mode, and I am totally at a loss for how to behave because I start responding emotionally in terms of the construct when the construct doesn't give me direction. Yes, I do value Fi and Ne, absolutely. But I use Ne less as a framework for reality than as a tool to create my own reality. You don't see me playing with perspective at all in my Facebook statuses, much less a drive to maintain my own perceptual framework? The loss of an ability to regain that is what I consider the cause of my current dissatisfaction.
I'm not placing myself in a special "outside the box" category. I think the box needs to be redefined, because not only does it not include me, it doesn't account for many people, not all of which I even like or would have motivation to try to promote the uniqueness of. It's not primarily an emotional drive but a mental drive for specificity.

So you freely admit that you have a warped and fucked up conception of self? How do you think you can type yourself accurately, then?

No. You're twisting my words. My understanding of reality and of myself has gotten distorted since about a year ago as a result of an incident with a friend I idolized. I am very careful about my attachments normally, because when I attach myself to people I slip into their paradigm, and if I do this too much and theirs is too different than mine, I experience a loss of my own perspective. This is the first time I didn't guard myself adequately emotionally, and it happened.

Fi to the max. Your idealistic feelings are so overpowering that sometimes you feel the only way to deal with them is to shut them out entirely--which, of course, feels meaningless and fatalistic. You might potentially be bipolar. Have you seen a counselor or something of the like? It might help.

I don't try to shut out my feelings at all. I try to frame the world in a way that makes me feel as much as possible. I am not even remotely bipolar, though I probably have characteristics of both BPD and Aspergers. I wouldn't label myself with either of those things but there are recognizable characteristics, one of which is shifting emotional states with BPD. I've tried talking to a couple of people since I've been at college but they didn't know what the hell I was talking about, and ultimately, I'm the only one who knows my mind well enough to know how to keep myself in a sustainable frame of mind. I've just gotten so far from it that it's very difficult finding my way back to that, although it has been getting progressively, if slowly better.


Many Ne people find that having a creative partner to bounce ideas around with helps out a lot.

Yeah, and I love bouncing ideas with people, but that's not my ultimate creative concern. My concern is that I have trouble generating content because I'm not all that aware of my surroundings, which would make sense given that I have three introverted leading functions to use before I have to use the extroverted ones.

Oh, and I posted a couple pictures of things I've made to show that I do have aesthetic sensibilities (Se), as well as a picture of me dressing up in costume as a kid, because I did that a lot since I was very young and I think that an obsession with costumes is also related to Se.

But don't worry--being INFP doesn't mean you can't be a unique individual with lots of worthwhile and special attributes. It's not a proscriptive insistence that you behave a certain way and it doesn't limit your ability to express yourself. It's just a description of the things you tend to consider important and the ways you prefer to conceptualize yourself and your relationship to the outer world...many people within the same type are extremely different and individualized in a million different ways.

Well, gee, thanks. If I had just known that before..


You have some self-image issues and a (perfectly normal) desire to appear special, unique and out of the box to others...this last part is really most evident in your facebook statuses. )

Clear-cut INFP.

It's not a feeling of emotional inadequacy, but again, a difficulty sinking back into my perspective.
 

jackandthebeast

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For some reason the attachements didn't go through the first time. The mannequin is a work in progress (has been for a really long time)
 

jackandthebeast

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I never understand why people want to try and say there are borderline types and yet still want to stay within the framework of MBTI.

Because I don't have issues with the framework. I have issues with the simplicity of the theory. It isn't specific enough for me to find it useable for myself. Using the patterns of four types where the cognitive functions take on the roles of multiple function positions simultaneously is more representative.
 

nightning

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I don't understand why you feel an academic essay will be a good description of who you are. The best way I find for understanding the personality of a person is through interactions. It's not very useful in saying you are INXX because you do so and so things. Frankly everybody regardless of their type will likely in one time or another do the exact same. Because a well-balanced individual should technically use all 8 functions. It is the degree and familiarity of use that determines type.

After you learn the basics of the 16 types, then you should step back from it all to look at people as individuals instead of just type. Because you're right, the model is overly simplifying personality. It's good as a starting framework but it's nothing more than that. A framework.
 

jackandthebeast

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I don't understand why you feel an academic essay will be a good description of who you are.

Because I've heard people saying they can determine functional use from writing samples before, and I believed that that was the case.

It's not very useful in saying you are INXX because you do so and so things. Frankly everybody regardless of their type will likely in one time or another do the exact same. Because a well-balanced individual should technically use all 8 functions. It is the degree and familiarity of use that determines type.

*IXFX

I understand all that. I was trying to demonstrate familiarity with different functions that, according to the 16-type model, you don't have familiarity with simultaneously.

After you learn the basics of the 16 types, then you should step back from it all to look at people as individuals instead of just type. Because you're right, the model is overly simplifying personality. It's good as a starting framework but it's nothing more than that. A framework.

Thank you for re-stating what I stated. I realize that. And I'm not overly relying on the model at this point. It is only the framework for, but not the nature of nor the content of, an individual's paradigm.

But I do feel a greater capacity to connect with individuals whose paradigms exist within frameworks I can better understand, and whose processing styles stimulate mine. Thus the focus on an EXFX. And again, I didn't just decide I was attracted to an EXFX because it made sense conceptually. I have been attracted to a persona for a long time that the type designation EXFX would characterize more than any other, but which is not necessarily the only manifestation of an EXFX.

After all, the Marquis de Sade is the only other IXFX I am aware of, and I don't identify with him even remotely.
 

simulatedworld

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I have to wonder what you're doing on this forum, honestly.
 

Venom

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It's not that I don't understand type theory, it's that I don't consider it valid. The categories it imposes are arbitrary, something which is not the case when you allow the possibility of being able to combine them.

You're an INFP. You're honestly only proving it more so. :rofl1:

Because I don't have issues with the framework. I have issues with the simplicity of the theory. It isn't specific enough for me to find it useable for myself.

Its not specific enough, so instead you take a more general approach? :confused:

No. See, I agree that MBTI isnt specific enough, but what that results in is me adding things to MAKE IT MORE specific:

Not just ENFJ, but ENFJ 1. Not just ENFJ 1, but ENFJ 1w9, not just ENFJ 1w9, but ENFJ 1w9 sp/sx etc...

Perhaps Socionics is more your style. Socionics actually describes all the functions experienced in each type (all 8 functions).
 

heart

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Because I hoped I could give people reason to doubt that I was a single type

If you know what you are and are not and have faith in your own knowing then why the need to convince others? :huh:

What will external validation get you that you cannot provide for yourself?
 

jackandthebeast

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I have to wonder what you're doing on this forum, honestly.

Well, where should I be with this then?
If there was actually an audience that agreed with what I'm writing, I might not feel the need to write it. I don't have another viable platform.

I know I'm coming off as abrasive, but consistently the responses seem to be trying to discredit me by saying that I don't understand the theory or something instead of trying to entertain the notion. Is it really that far-fetched to suggest that you can be equally intuitive and sensing, or perceiving and judging? Or that you can orient both ways, for that matter?
Wouldn't it make sense for some people to be in the middle?

And wouldn't it make sense then that you could still use the cognitive charts, understanding the functions as being in multiple places at once? Because if you were an EXTP, your Se and Ne would still having conflicting priorities where only engaging with the one is unfulfilling and is considered useless to one's priorities. Not to suggest that people are types, but to illustrate the functions being in multiple places at once, it would be like two people tied to the waist for life (or Siamese twins), where the only way to achieve individual goals is to compromise.

I guess I can't blame people for seeing me as an INFP, since what I'm demonstrating in communicating is mostly my values, and my values are very P. A friend/mentor figure has told me before that I behave in a very J way but that what I want out of life is very much in line with what Ps want. I don't know how to make my behavior come across though.. Basically, I just really want to give the idea enough credibility that *XFXs who might otherwise dismiss the system entirely would label themselves as such, and I would be able to find them.
That's why I'm on the boards.
Are you saying that my proselytizing of a deviation from the basic theory makes me unwelcome here?
 

purplesunset

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If you know what you are and are not and have faith in your own knowing then why the need to convince others? :huh:

What will external validation get you that you cannot provide for yourself?

There are some who think that she's just an indecisive INFP who wants to be special and doesn't want to fit into a box.

I think what the OP is trying to do is show that there is shortcoming in the theory (as everyone already knows).

However, according to those with a strict interpretation of MBTI, the theory is inflexible, and people who label themselves "X", are somehow just unhealthy, indecisive, or don't know what they're talking about.

I disagree with that strict, overly prescriptive view of MBTI because I myself can identify with being unclear/ambiguous about my type. It's certainly not due to simply ignorance, or misunderstanding.

It's less about wanting external validation, and more about wanting to show that, while she knows herself, the theory doesn't allow for enough possibilities to fix neatly unto her.
 

jackandthebeast

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You're an INFP. You're honestly only proving it more so. :rofl1:



Its not specific enough, so instead you take a more general approach? :confused:

No. See, I agree that MBTI isnt specific enough, but what that results in is me adding things to MAKE IT MORE specific:

Not just ENFJ, but ENFJ 1. Not just ENFJ 1, but ENFJ 1w9, not just ENFJ 1w9, but ENFJ 1w9 sp/sx etc...

It's not a more general approach when you look at the functions as being in multiple places at once because you're using multiple patterns simultaneously.

e.g:
Ti Se Ni Fe Si Te Fi Ne
Si Te Fi Ne Ti Se Ni Fe

And the Ennegram is just a bunch of basic descriptions. That stuff I consider to have no validity, as I'm sure I could find at least five Enneagram subtypes that describe me. I think I actually did at some point. The only reason I place any weight on the Myers-Brigg at all is because it has a structural pattern with elements that interact in a way that I can understand.

[/I]
Perhaps Socionics is more your style. Socionics actually describes all the functions experienced in each type (all 8 functions)

I've actually looked at the descriptions of the functions in different positions, and it aligns with my theory, even if i think Lenore Thompson's model makes more sense. But I have the same basic issue with Socionics that I do with the Myers-Brigg.
 

jackandthebeast

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There are some who think that she's just an indecisive INFP who wants to be special and doesn't want to fit into a box.

I think what the OP is trying to do is show that there is shortcoming in the theory (as everyone already knows).

However, according to those with a strict interpretation of MBTI, the theory is inflexible, and people who label themselves "X", are somehow just unhealthy, indecisive, or don't know what they're talking about.

It's less about wanting external validation, and more about wanting to show that, while she knows herself, the theory doesn't allow for enough possibilities to fix neatly unto her.

:D


:hug:
 
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